Donald Biase

The trustee overseeing owner, breeder Ahmed Zayat's personal bankruptcy proceedings made several court filings Tuesday to recover roughly $90,000 in allegedly fraudulent payments to various law firms. According to the court filings, Zayat was insolvent at the time the transfers were made, and therefore, the law firms who are the defendants in the suits received more than they would have done through the Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings "had the Transfer[s] not been made." Trustee Donald Biase alleges in his court filings that the largest transfer of money Zayat fraudulently made...

Ahmed Zayat's attempt to get out from under $19 million in debt has reached yet another--and purportedly intentional--legal bottleneck. The trustee assigned to the case is now alleging that three children and the wife of the financially strapped owner and breeder of Triple Crown champ American Pharoah are refusing to cooperate in providing documentation the trustee had subpoenaed from them to try and trace millions of dollars in possibly fraudulent transfers. "[T]he Trustee's investigation reveals that the Debtor and his family members have engaged in a pattern of intermingling of...

In an effort to claw back at least $200,000 in transfers by Ahmed Zayat that allegedly constitute "fraudulent conveyance" because they occurred just prior Zayat's filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection, the trustee in charge of vetting Zayat's case filed two complaints in federal court Wednesday that aim to recover that money so it might instead go toward paying creditors. Zayat claims to be $19 million in debt, and a massive chunk of that money is owed to Thoroughbred-related individuals and entities. According to documentation filed Apr. 21 in United...